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Enigma race
The enigma race are the first intelligent extra-terrestrial species encountered by humanity. The full extent of their territory and capabilities are unknown, but they occupy star systems directly adjacent to those of the Syndicate Worlds along the 'far border' from the Alliance. The Enigma race is more advanced than humanity in many areas, and is responsible for the presence of the Hypernet Gates (the technology was simultaneously provided to the Alliance and Syndics 70 years prior to the cessation of the war, with each side believing that espionage was responsible for the breakthroughs making the super-fast transit system possible) in human space. This was most likely done as a means of seeding human space with what are essentially nova scale mines, allowing the Enigma race to simply sterilize human occupied space if they so chose. Sub-light propulsion and inertial dampening technologies aboard Enigma warships were believed to be at least an order of magnitude better than those of human warships at the time of the Battle of Midway star system. In actuality, the Engima fill their ships with water and take greater risks with their core shielding, giving superior results in maneuvering, but cutting the mass to thrust ratio to only a little better than Alliance warships, while limiting the weapons the ships can carry. There is also evidence to suggest that the Enigma race may have superior system jump drive technology than humanity, as their fleet first appeared at a greater distance from the jump point from Pele (an Enigma occupied, former Syndic star system that is within jump distance of Midway star system) than would be possible for human warships during the Midway engagement. The Enigma race has vastly superior software technology, infecting hypernet key in use aboard both Alliance and Syndic vessels with 'Probability Worms', a technology that takes advantage of a quantum wave effect that is not fully understood by humanity to trasnmit information, sabotage ship systems, and detonate hypernet gates using signals that travel at supra-luminal speeds. Prior to the breakthrough by Alliance Fleet Captain Jaylen Cresida which made detection of the electronic infiltration possible, the Enigma race had been able to track every move made by any human ship in close to real time. The Enigma race may use a decimal based number system similar to that of the humans. The Enigma race is responsible for the death of more than 100 million human beings in the Kalixa system, which was sterilized by the destruction of its hypernet gate-a desperate gamble by the Enigma race that the explosion would destroy the Alliance fleet as well. The Enigma race attempted to further incite a genocidal war between the Syndicate Worlds and the Alliance when it collapsed the Hypernet Gate at Petit, a major Alliance shipbuilding star system. The Cresida-safe fail system prevented the annihilation of the system. The same tactic was attempted using the Hypernet Gate in the Syndicate Home star system, but was foiled by the same mechanism, While the Enigma race has steadily pushed the Syndicate Worlds out of many star systems along their shared border since first contact (leaving behind a huge number of human civilians and military personnel-the fates of which are unknown due to the inability of the Syndics to effectively repel or counterattack the aliens), comparatively little is known about the Enigma species itself. Even the appearance of the beings is unknown, CEO Boyens indicates that the first interactions between the Syndics and the aliens were text only, and then later composite video imagery of various Syndicate personnel that the aliens had interacted with in past encounters used as avatars for the Enigma transmissions. Admiral Geary and his closest advisors (Captains Duellos, Cresida, Desjani and Tulev, as well as Co President of the Callas Republic Victoria Rione) speculate that the Enigma race has an aversion to stand-up fights, instead relying on trickery to weaken humanity through self inflicted wounds. This belief is lent credence by the relatively small Reserve Flotilla's ability to keep major Enigma race aggression in check for decades. It is likely that the Enigma species encouraged the Syndicate Worlds to launch an attack on the Alliance (knowing that no decision could easily be reached between the two massive human powers, and that the longer humanity squandered resources fighting between it's own factions, the less time and effort could be dedicated to other pursuits such as technological advancement or territorial expansion), promising military assistance, and then neglecting to provide it at the moment of truth. While the war raged between the human factions, the Enigma race quietly probed the border they shared with the Syndicate Worlds, while the humans did the same. The Syndicate efforts in this regard were unqualified failures, while in the limited combat which took place during this time, Syndicate Mobile Defense Force ships were defeated in every engagement in which they participated, and any surviving crew were killed to a man by the Enigma race. A number of plans were attempted by the Syndics, including sending meteors with surveillance equipment at sub-luminal speeds towards Enigma occupied systems, hoping that they would be overlooked, leaving suited Mobile Assault Force personnel outside of starships which engaged Enigma vessels to attempt to capture recordings, and probing assaults by Syndic expeditionary forces. All of these plans failed to yield any data on the Enigma race. On only one occasion has the Enigma race been successfully engaged by a human force. This occurred following the armistice between the Syndicate Worlds and the Alliance, and took place in Midway star system, a major commercial and transit hub for the Syndicate Worlds in the area adjacent to the territory of the Enigma race. The majority of the Alliance Fleet, having successfully concluded the campaign against the Syndics, responded to a plea for assistance sent by CEO Iceni, the governor of the Midway star system. The Alliance fleet was unable to engage the Enigma race in any meaningful dialogue, and, forced to fight in order to save the hundreds of millions of human civilians who would be stranded in the system if the Enigma race were allowed to occupy it, decisively defeated a large Enigma fleet. During this engagement the Enigma race's ships were viewed for the first time (this was made possible by the scrubbing of infected fleet systems which the Enigma race had seeded once again with Quantum Probability Worms). Category:Species